Takatori Castle Ruins

Takatori Castle, now in ruins, was built on top of Mt. Takatori at a height of 583.9 meters and has been named one of the Three Great Mountaintop Castles and one of the Top 100 Castles in Japan. Ochi Hachiro Kunizumi of the Ochi clan built the original castle in 1332 and since then it was the castle of the Honda clan, the retainers of Toyotomi Hidenaga, during the Azuchi-Momoyama period, and then the Uemura clan, who were hereditary vassals during the Edo period. However, the castle was abandoned in 1873 at the time of the Meiji Restoration. Although most of the castle has now but disappeared, the stone foundations and approximately 10 meters of inner and outer stone walling still remain. The castle ruins have been designated as a national historic site.